The International Canoe Federation (ICF) wants better recognition of the events and therefor 'decided' to standardise the identifications (advertising) on all equipment. So far the first reactions on social media platforms such as Facebook are mixed.

Whether these guidelines are already set in stone is not clear. According to C1 paddler Denis Gargaud from France probably not: "It has not been aproved! fortunately!". This would make sense because there are several federations like for example the FFCK (France) that have advertising restrictions too.

We haven't come across a reaction from leading sprint & slalom manufacturers such as Nelo but slalom boat builder Galasport posted the following message on their Facebook page: "PLEASE PAY AN ATTENTION: ICF has prepared this advertising restrictions for ICF slalom events! As a manufacturer Galasport doesn't agree with this document in this range! There shouldn't be such a big amount of limitation both for athletes and producers's visibility! Click like if you agree with us or leave a comment for further discussion with International Canoe Federation. Thanx! https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0FO9BpB28EXN3F4SWtzQ25nN3M/edit".

Judging by the number of likes for that post it seems that the community of athletes strongly agrees. As one athlete put it:

"After reading this document it seems the ICF hasn't given this much thought... It's going to make it impossible for any athlete, club or team to get money from sponsors. Plus they are banning us from having branding at events we have to pay to attend. "Always moving forward" I guess if they are going to pay for the space they intend to take up it's ok...."

This seems to be more or less how the majority of athletes thinks about the ICF guidelines at this stage. However some also look at it from a different perspective:

"If placing ICF and Event Sponsor logos on the equipment means more events for the sport, and the money is honestly used to develop the sport, then I guess it is a compromise the athletes have to take. It would be better if the athletes have more control of the rest of the "non-ICF" portions of their equipment though."

SPORTSCENE will try to come up soon with a rounded perspective that discusses the pros and cons.

Meanwhile, what do you think about guidelines for branding in the sport?